How Much Information Do You Publish?

A TEMPLE UNIVERSITY STUDENT now stands accused of raping two female students over the weekend of January 27.

Police arrested and formally charged the 21-year old suspect. Temple University has since suspended him.

As a journalist, do you have an obligation to the community to publish the name and image of the suspect?

Or do you have an obligation to the suspect, to not further damage his life unless he is proven guilty in a court of law?

Just Between You and Me ... Not!

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES travel with the media in tow, even on airplanes. And the candidates frequently walk to the back of the plane to chat with the journos.

When Illinois Senator Barack Obama walked to the back of the plane recently, he noticed the reporters had their voice recorders on and they were taking notes. Obama wasn't happy. He asked that the conversations remain off the record.

Can he, or any other presidential candidate, make such a request?

Can candidates have private moments with journalists that are not on the record? Or is everything the candidate does or says a matter of potential public interest?

A Blue Sky Would Have Been Much Prettier.

AN ADVISOR at the University of Denver's student newspaper, The Clarion, suggested that the photo above would have been better with a bluer sky. And the advisor suggested that the photojournalist who created the image - at an MLK rally - digitally manipulate the sky to make it prettier.

How many of the principles of journalism would that violate?

Or, is it an acceptable thing to do? After all, magazines manipulate images frequently and nearly every glossy mag's cover has been heavily airbrushed.

The Britney Spears Death Watch?

WORD LEAKED OUT that the Associated Press has a prepared obit of down-on-her-luck pop star, Britney Spears.

The practice of preparing obits well in advance is common. Journalists need to be ready to launch the story as soon as it breaks. But prepared obits are usually reserved for celebrities late in their lives. Britney is 26.

The AP's entertainment editor justifies the practice this way: "For me, anyway, it’s a pretty simple two factors. How likely is the person to die and how big a story is it going to be when they do?"

Isn't that just morbid?

Of course, this is all punctuated by the early death of Heath Ledger and the mysterious events that lead to his passing on January 22 at the age of 28.

Does this practice of preparing obits follow the principles of journalism?

A New Online Mag Targets A Specific Audience.

THE WASHINGTON POST, in conjunction with famed scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., has launched a new website called The Root dedicated to serving the interests of African-American readers.

The Root will be a 21st-century version of a national black newspaper, Gates told the Washington Post, featuring articles from notable black writers, such as the New Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell.

In recent years, the media has become more and more focused on who their readers are, and molding their product around who will look at it. Is this a good thing or bad thing? It seems to make good business sense, but does the news for Caucasian-Americans differ from that of African-Americans?

Are we deciding what people should know based upon their skin color? Or is this a way of serving a community that has traditionally been ignored by the mainstream media?

And will an online "national black newspaper" erode the circulation of traditional black newspapers like The Baltimore Afro-American, the Philadelphia Tribune or the Amsterdam News?

Hey! That's My Ass!

TUFTS UNIVERSITY near Boston has an annual tradition called the Naked Quad Run. At the end of the semester just before finals, hundreds of naked students do laps around campus, usually on freezing cold nights.

It's become such a large and popular event that the local media now cover it.

The Somerville Journal, in an ambitious act of multimedia convergence, attached video of the event to their online story. And that ruffled some feathers.

First, should the newspaper have run the video? Is it newsworthy? Isn't it pseudo-pornography?

Second, don't the people running naked have the right not to have their bare asses shown to the entire world? Have their rights been violated? They didn't consent to having their bums broadcast, did they? Or is this just good community journalism?

Third, are we violating their rights even further by running the photo above and linking to the streaking video?

Finally, can you publish the word "ass" without penalty?

Did The Media Drop the Ball on the Jena Story?

THE STORY OF what happened in Jena, Louisiana made international news. Eventually.

It wasn't until long after the initial events that the national media wrote about the racially-charged incidents in the sleepy little town. It was nearly a full year before the case of the Jena 6 became an actual movement, complete with protests and rallies across the country (including here at Temple).

But why did it take so long? Was it too controversial for the mainstream media? Were the facts so disputed that no one wanted to touch the story?

And when the media finally covered the story, did they do so superficially, never really delving into the facts and details, such as Mychal Bell's prior arrest record?

Did the media fall into a trap set by radical bloggers?